This archive collects milestones and progress stories involving U.S. states, Canadian provinces, and subnational governments around the world. From landmark legislation to public health wins and environmental gains, these stories highlight the real-world impact of regional policy and governance.
South Australia is not just likely to have already met its target of 50 per cent renewables some eight years ahead of time, it is now heading for an extraordinary penetration rate of 80 per cent wind and solar by 2021.
For the first time, more than half the power needs of the entire state came from solar power for a few hours that day, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
New York just became the first state in the nation to make tuition free for middle class students at both two- and four-year public colleges.
The state of California has finalized its decision designating glyphosate, the main ingredient in the pesticide Roundup, as a known human carcinogen under the state’s Proposition 65.
The majority, including a handful of Republicans, voted to ban the practice after hearing arguments that science shows that the risk of earthquakes, water contamination and health problems increases in fracked areas.
Florida solar got a boost on Election Day 2016, when roughly 73% of voters approved Amendment 4, exempting home solar equipment from property tax assessments. The measure drew a rare bipartisan coalition and passed alongside the defeat of a utility-backed counter-measure. In the years that followed, Florida climbed from near the bottom of U.S. solar rankings toward the top.
California’s 2016 rape sentencing law closed a quiet but consequential gap: judges could no longer hand down probation when a victim was unconscious or intoxicated rather than physically forced. The Assembly passed it 66–0, weeks after the Brock Turner case drew national outrage. A narrow fix, but one that aligned the law with how assault actually happens.
Massachusetts rewrote its equal pay law in the summer of 2016, updating a 1945 statute for the first time in over 70 years. The bill, signed by Governor Charlie Baker, became the first in the nation to ban employers from asking applicants about salary history. Within two years, more than a dozen states had followed its lead.
The Great Bear Rainforest agreement, signed in February 2016, protected 85% of old-growth trees across 6.4 million hectares of British Columbia’s coast — a temperate rainforest roughly the size of Ireland. Reached after nearly 20 years of negotiation, it placed 26 First Nations at the center as co-managers, embedding Indigenous authority into conservation law.
Ranked-choice voting went statewide for the first time in the U.S. when Maine voters approved it on Election Day 2016, passing the ballot initiative with about 52 percent support. The shift came after two governor’s races won with pluralities, including one victory at just 37 percent. A small state quietly rethinking what majority rule means.
